Baby #3: 17 weeks this week's cliche....

What's the first thing people tell you when you start to have kids? I guess I can't speak for all people, but for me, I just remember people telling me how quickly "Time Flies". At the time, I nodded and smiled, but to be honest, I had no idea what they were talking about.

Now I know exactly what they mean.

Sometimes you don't see it happening while it's happening. But then you see something you realized you didn't know had changed and it makes you reflect on everything.

Bella just had her 15 mo appointment last week. In case you haven't gathered by previous posts, I have not been nearly attentive to this child as I was to my first. It's not because I don't love her. It's strictly logistics. I don't have time. I generally don't have time to even worry how I'm not worried about her hitting her milestones and developmental markers, but recently, things have calmed down in our house and I've been granted a glimpse into just how adapt-ably awesome my poor, neglected, second-child is. She's amazing. And this is by no fault of  my own.

I think with Bella I have had a hard time seeing her as anything but my baby. I suppose it's the way too grown up 3 year old living in my house that is constantly pointing out to me that Bella is, IN FACT, still a baby (and to her I'm sure she always will be as well). But BECAUSE of my bossy and psuedo-independent 3 year old, I find myself doling out instruction to my 15 mo old without so much as a second thought or consideration that I have not yet "taught" her what I was asking her to do. And to my surprise.....she does it anyway! We were in my closet (we do a lot of bathroom hanging out in the mornings) one weekday morning, and the kids like to get into my clothes/shoes and generally make a mess and drive me crazy. Before we leave the room though, I make it a point to try and get them to make some sort of order out of the mess. Well I was speaking to Mia and said "please put that sock in the dirty clothes hamper before you come out of the closet." She, of courese, ignored my request. BUT, to my surprise, my (not quite) 15 mo old picked up the sock I was speaking of and took it to the hamper to put it away. *drops the mic*

So once I realized her new super power, I began to use it more often. It generally is used to get her to clean up messes of her own making, but none the less....it's one less mess for mama to pick up! (or lets be real, one less mess that will sit around on the floor until I trip over it and hurt myself, cursing in pain and THEN pick it up....). This is huge. Do you want to know how much time I spent trying to get Mia to pick up her toys?? Ya'll....it was a lot of time.

After I realized this small, amazing, not-so-baby-like talent this child of mine had, I started exploring other things I had yet to teach her (like EVERYthing because I'm terrible). I asked where her head was. Ya'll...SHE KNEW! She also knew where her nose, ears, and most importantly....her booty......were. Please tell me that Dan and I are not the only parents totally obsessed with our childrens' booties....

Well aside from all that business Dan and I started trying to remember when Mia started talking. And to be fair....Mia talked REALLY early. It's weird how something that was such a HUGE milestone only 2 years ago is so hard to recall now. I guess part of that is that now, Mia is never not talking, so it's really hard to believe there was ever a time that she wasn't capable. To our surprise last week, Bella broadened her vocab to almost 10 words! She now says "Daa-yee" (Daddy), "mama" (she says this for me, but also for ANYthing else she wants), "mo" (more, she also does the sign), "ba-bye" (she also waves....why is that SO FREAKING CUTE?!), "boop" (book), "Cab" (crab, there is a crab book in the bathtub), and she's been able to say "Yia-Yia and Papa" for a while now too. She also knows the sign for "please" and is trying to say "fish", but mostly it is just her making the "Fff" sound. I'm not joking, with the exception of Mama and more, she picked all these up within the last 10 days! (please note she's said "Dada" for a long while, but recently started calling him daddy, which is also the most precious thing in the whole entire world.) So, we met our quota for vocab words by her 15 mo appt.....phew....that was close ;) Now we are working on animal sounds. Have I ever told ya'll that THAT is my MOST FAVORITE baby phase?! My oldest niece used to crack me up with the cat sound. You'd ask her "Lora, what does the cat say?" and she'd respond with a resounding "M-OW!". The. Best.

And don't even get me started on Mia....She's like a little grown up now. I feel like it's just happening so fast. She's at an age where she tells these elaborate stories that will (literally) go on forever if you don't stop her. But it's amazing, because at the end, despite her story being all over the board with flying horses and sharks who eat big monsters and then in the end they all come together and have a tea party....because you know, that's what flying horses and sharks and monsters normally do. She also came downstairs last night looking for Baby Doggy (serious, we're terrible at naming stuffed animals, but in our defense, she has 8 million...) and she says "Mom....this is bad. I can't find Baby Doggy anywhere. I think he's in the car. Oh, man....this is really bad." straight faced she says this. I just had to contain my laughter and help her with the search for Baby Doggy....but it was tough, I'm not going to lie. She also is very attentive to me and her sister. When I am in the restroom sitting on "the thrown" with my entourage (because who needs to use the rr alone?!), she always inquires what "number" I'm going to be doing, then makes sure to follow it up with "just tell me if you need to go poop!" haha. What a little mother. She's awesome. Wasn't she just born??

Speaking of overnight changes.....remember how I was talking about how neither of my kids were sleeping through the night? Mia was even refusing to sleep in her bed! Well, now, amazingly, they both are sleeping soundly through the night in their own beds. We are aiming to have the girls share a room once baby boy gets here, so step one was them sleeping through the night. Step 2 is getting Mia to sleep with the lights off (she currently sleeps with a small lamp about about 40 night lights....you could land a plane in her room.) Thankfully we have time. And I am learning that I make these adjustments way more in my head than they actually usually turn out to be. We are going to try and attempt the transition in May so we have a couple of months to work on the baby's room before his big arrival and before I'm too big to care ;)

Time is flying.

And here I am almost halfway through my third pregnancy, wondering how on earth almost 18 weeks has gotten by me already! We have yet to make any firm decisions on names (despite thinking we had decided a few weeks ago) or my future at work. Instead we are spending our time with our babies, trying to soak up all the little moments that we'll talk about at family dinners when they are grown and have brought home their first boyfriends :) These really are/have been the best years of my life so far. There are certainly days when I reminisce about impromptu happy hours with my girlfriends (and studly boyfriend turned husband) and beachy vacations that we could take on a whim, but to be honest I wouldn't trade a day with my kids for any happy hour or vacation in the world.

Today I'm 17w3d pregnant. I am definitely starting to show more, but thankfully I am not feeling the impact (YET) of the extra girth. I'm still in all my jeans and tops, although I have been able to wear a couple of maternity sweaters that don't require a huge belly. I'm still able to run and exercise 4-5 times a week and I honestly believe that is helping with my energy level as well as my sanity. I have managed to pack on 3 lbs since my last doc appt....so, I've got that weight thing covered too. See what I mean, all or nothing!

Here is me at 15 and 16wks, I haven't take a shot this week yet, so that will have to wait until my next post....

Pretty sure this is 15 wks. I took it to show how bloated I get after I eat! and I mostly eat just lean meats and veggies....I mean seriously! Yikes.

16 weeks

On Valentine's Day, we took a family walk, it was beautiful out and I can' tthink of a better way to spend a pretty day :)

This is Mia "helping" Bella to get in the picture. Thankfully Bella generally doesn't mind being pulled around, and she CERTAINLY dishes it back! Mia is much less receptive to it ;)

Bruiser has yet another head injury.....And mommy has some serious eye baggage.

Let's be real. When you have a tea party, a wand AND sunglasses are a must.